GUEST EDITORIAL
native pollinators. Indeed, one of the lessons from organ- ic agriculture is that wild pollinators are considerably more abundant than on conventional farms. A shift towards wild - formation in how commercial beekeepers make their living, which today in the USA is slanted toward moving bees mul- tiple times to pollinate crops. The reality of contemporary agriculture, heavily dependent on mobile honey bees, and the vision of many in the pollinator movement for more balanced agroecosystems, may not be compatible, and it will on this particular issue. The beekeeping community is itself divided, with a chasm
between those promoting small-scale, stationary beekeeping and more industrial beekeepers with thousands or tens of thousands of highly mobile colonies. The disparity between hobby/sideline and commercial beekeepers has always been a component of beekeeping, but hobbyists and sideline bee- colonies continue to collapse in high numbers. Darwinian beekeeping is becoming particularly popular,
championed by Tom Seeley, whose work on feral honeybees suggests that honey bee health might improve if colonies were managed in hives and with life cycles closer to those of wild honey bee nests. This work has inspired a popular movement among beekeepers (see for example, Seeley’s re- cent excellent new book The Lives of Bees), and uncov- ered differing philosophies around what beekeeping could and should be. -
ing growth of urban beekeeping. Local meetings that used to attract ten old-timers now bring in dozens or even hundreds of interested residents, with a wide range of ages, genders, and cultural, economic and political backgrounds. These as- piring beekeepers hold in common a desire to foster colonies as sustainably as possible, seeing beekeeping as a way forward towards an urban ideal that integrates city life and nature. Colonies on roofs and in neighborhood gardens and
backyards are springing up all over cities globally. A new in- dustry has even developed that for a fee will put a colony on
your building/company roof or your home balcony/back- yard for a fee, manage it for you or teach you how to be a beekeeper, and provide colony renters with some buckets of honey at the end of the season. This explosion of urban beekeeping, and the corre- sponding compatibility of municipal bylaws that permit bee- keeping, have been important positive elements in expanding public support for pollinators. But, more honey bee colonies in cities has also created disagreements with those worried that the high density of hives may adversely impact wild pol- linators. The concern seems to be growing along with bee- keeping, but to my knowledge there is little evidence one way or another to support or deny this claim. Research would be useful here to add data to the speculation.
been between purists who want conservation programs to focus exclusively on native plants that might attract native bees, vs. those who see “native” as less important than sim- ply being good pollinator plants. An astounding number of common North American plants that provide excellent for- age for bees are not native, and of course the honey bee itself is an imported species. Here, too, compromise seems viable, with a mix of native and non-native plantings creating plants as well as the generalists that can obtain abundant nec- tar and pollen from diverse sources. Pollinators are but a subset of the many challenges fac-
undercurrent of the core issue we all face: whether to work together for the common good, or to divide into sectors with narrower positions. My hope is that 2 Million Blossoms will be a successful outlet to broadly celebrate pollinators and the range of people who have come to care deeply about these issues as we move into the uncharted territory in which hon- ey bees and other pollinators may gravitate toward a different balance than they have in the past. I have learned much from both honey bees and wild bees,
reaching across the aisle to work together. My main takeaway need attention, but problems are best solved through col- laboration and cooperation, with the spice of respectful, di- verse voices providing the most effective catalyst for positive change.
Mark L. Winston is a Professor and Senior Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, and author of the recent books “Bee Time: Lessons From the Hive” as well as the co-authored “Listening to the Bees,” with poet Renee Sarojini Saklikar.
www.winstonhive.com (personal blog and website)
www.sfu.ca/dialogue (Centre for Dialogue)
www.sfu.ca/dialogue/semester (Semester in Dialogue)
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